Eighteen months after local organizers began in earnest their grueling quest to bring the USA Pro Cycling Challenge to Boulder -- solving myriad logistical challenges, navigating the sticky wickets of local ordinances, and planning out the course in excruciating detail -- racers tore their way through town and slogged up Flagstaff Mountain on Saturday, carried along by the roar of massive crowds.

"Everyone associated with the race is of the opinion that this was probably the largest-viewed cycling event in American cycling history," said Barry Siff, who co-chaired the local organizing committee for the race along with Andrew Shoemaker. "It was huge, bigger than Denver last year. It was the biggest day in American pro cycling history."

The hordes of cycling fans who mobbed Flagstaff Mountain to watch the race finish -- many of whom wore tutus, masks, capes, Speedos, wigs or one of an assortment of Disney-character costumes -- got to watch a now-local boy win the stage, the sixth in the seven-day race that ends with a time trial in Denver today.

Rory Sutherland, a native Australian who first moved to Boulder in 2007, was the first to cross the finish line near the Flagstaff amphitheater.

"Clearly, I'm not from the U.S. or from Boulder originally," Sutherland said in his Australian accent at a press conference after the race. "But for me, it's my adopted home. This is where I live. This is where I am bringing up a family."

Sutherland said the opportunity to race through his backyard was a very special experience and that, as he rode into town from the race's start in Golden, he got "goose bumps and hot-and-cold shivers."

The second-place winner was Italian Fabio Aru, and third place went to German Jens Voigt.

Voigt said he was told that there could be as many as 30,000 people packed on Flagstaff Mountain to watch the finish, but he had considered the number unlikely until he rode through the swarm of fans himself.

"Hey, I'm a believer now," he said at the post-race press conference. "I saw it with my own eyes. I mean, I didn't count every one, but roughly guessing, there must have been 20,000 or 30,000. ... I hope we can have another stage next year up this climb. It was really hard; I suffered a lot, but it was just great."

Voigt called the Flagstaff finish the "icing on the cake" of a great week.

Fans on Flagstaff

Whether or not the race should be allowed to finish on Flagstaff was a matter of contention in the months leading up to the race. For some, the idea was a dream come true, but others worried about the possible impact to city-owned open space. In the final agreement, the city decided to limit the number of spectators on the mountain to about 30,000 by handing out wristbands, which also asked wearers to agree to a code of conduct generally meant to protect the area.

While having a wristband allowed people passage up the mountain, it didn't guarantee the best viewing spot, so some die-hard cycling fans showed at the base of Flagstaff Mountain at 7 a.m., when the roads were officially opened to hikers and bikers.

About 10 members of the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance gathered at the road closure at around 6:30 a.m. with the essentials: a beverage cooler, cowbells, and perhaps most importantly, a gorilla suit. When the road opened, a few of them began dragging the gear up the road on two wheels in search of the perfect party spot, where they expected about 60 or so BMA members to congregate later in the day.

Another early riser was DJ Good Steve, who biked up the mountain with a 60-pound subwoofer. He eventually got his sound system set up about halfway up the mountain, where he pumped out tunes while wearing a red cape and hat with devil horns.

Hikers also trickled up the trails starting early in the morning.

"The hike has been mellow, (though we) had to take some rest stops," said J.P. McLaughlin, of Denver, around 8:30 a.m., after hiking part way up the mountain from Chautauqua. "We've got plenty of time. We're going to putz our way up."

Happy people

Crowds also began populating downtown Boulder hours before the riders passed through the area for the first time.

When the peloton made it to Boulder, 8-year-old Brady Allison got a good look at the riders by standing on a trash can at the corner of 17th and Pearl streets.

"I thought it was really cool," she said. "They went really fast."

Others tried to get a unique vantage point by climbing the large tree on the southeast corner of 17th and Pearl, or pushing through the wall of people to get a peek out at street level.

Between the racers' first pass through Boulder and their second pass -- after riding up Boulder Canyon to Nederland, along the Peak to Peak Highway and down South St. Vrain Canyon to Lyons -- many spectators occupied themselves by bellying up to the busy beer tents, grabbing a bite to eat, or watching the action on the Jumbotrons.

Among the crowd downtown was Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum, who said the race appeared to have gone smoothly.

"From what I saw downtown, it went fabulously well," he said. "There were a huge number of people -- all of them happy."

Other city leaders watched the racers come in at the finish line.

"Welcome to Boulder and welcome to our mountain," Boulder City Councilwoman Suzanne Jones told the crowd on Flagstaff's summit. "It's great to have international cycling back in our town to show off our great open space and our way of life. Cycling is part of the culture and history in Boulder."

Back in 2013?

With what appears to have been a wildly successful race now in the past, race organizers, fans and city officials may already be looking toward the future.

Siff, the co-chair of the local organizing committee, said he thinks the fans will expect a return to Boulder for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, which is in its second year, in 2013.

"I think the community -- they said that today. They said it by coming out; they said it by supporting it the way they did without any problems," he said. "... I think everybody was psyched and excited. I've got to believe that the community will stand behind it even stronger in 2013."

Mayor Appelbaum said that while some analysis will be needed of the race's impact to Flagstaff Mountain, hosting the race a second year would be a much easier task.

"As long as the impact is pretty minor, and it's mostly along the side of the road, and people behaved themselves -- which it seems like they were doing --I don't think there'd be any great issue," Appelbaum said.

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